European leaders aim to use meetings with Donald Trump at a Group of Seven summit in France next week to get the US President on board with plans to push for new peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, according to people familiar with the matter.
The UK, France and Germany believe momentum in the war has shifted toward Ukraine, creating an opening for negotiations that would move beyond terms that emerged after Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska last year, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
The leaders of the so-called E3 nations want Russia to accept an immediate ceasefire with the current front line as the “starting point for negotiations” and robust security guarantees for Ukraine that include deployment of a multinational force. They set out the proposals in a joint statement with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy following talks in London on Sunday.
“We are stepping up the pressure on Russia,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told lawmakers in Berlin on Thursday. “At the same time, we are supporting efforts to reach a negotiated solution to end Russia’s war of aggression. A lasting peace can only be achieved through negotiations involving Ukraine, Russia, the USA, and Europe. There is no other way.”
The ambassadors of France, Germany and the UK in Moscow visited the Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday for talks with Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, state-run Tass news service reported. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said a day earlier that the envoys had requested a meeting to discuss the war in Ukraine.
Putin has previously refused a ceasefire to allow for peace talks, arguing it would allow Kyiv to rearm and bolster its defenses, and has rejected the presence of European troops in Ukraine. He wants Ukraine to surrender territory in its eastern Donetsk region that Russian forces have failed to take in fighting since 2014 under any peace accord, something Kyiv has ruled out.
Critics of the idea of engaging with Russia now, including some officials from E3 nations, say that is all unlikely to change any time soon.
Still, with the February 2022 full-scale invasion now in its fifth year, Russia’s forces are making little progress on the battlefield at the cost of mounting losses, while its economy is straining despite a boost from surging oil prices over the Middle East war.
Ukraine is also waging a sustained campaign of strikes inside Russia targeting oil refineries and companies linked to defense production, reaching deeper inside the country to bring the war closer to home for ordinary Russians.
The E3 see an opportunity to carve out a bigger role for Europe in shaping negotiations, as US-led talks have stalled with Washington focused on the conflict with Iran. They want Trump’s buy-in to their proposals as a way to help increase pressure on Russia to come to the negotiating table, leading to talks involving officials from Europe, the US, Ukraine and Russia as early as next month, the people familiar said.
As part of these efforts, the UK and the European Union are working on new sanctions to impose on Russia in the coming weeks, the people added. They cautioned that the plans were in flux and could change.
Europe is also seeking to avoid a repeat of last winter, when Ukrainians endured freezing temperatures without power or heating as Russia carried out waves of devastating attacks on energy infrastructure.
A German official declined to comment. French President Emmanuel Macron’s press office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The UK government declined to comment.
| Read More: |
|---|
|
Germany, France, UK Sketch Plan for Putin Talks on Ukraine European Leaders Join Ukraine Call for Ceasefire With Russia |
Putin last week criticized a mediation role for European leaders, saying they were clearly on Ukraine’s side in the war. He also flatly rejected an offer from Zelenskyy to meet for direct talks, dismissing an open letter from the Ukrainian leader as “rude” and intended to make it “impossible to hold any personal meetings.”
The Russian leader has stood firm on what he says were agreements reached with Trump at their meeting in Anchorage . European states should “convince the Kyiv authorities to agree to the compromises we are talking about,” he told a meeting with foreign media last week.
Ukraine’s in a position of strength now militarily, politically and economically and it’s “high time” for Europe to reach out to Putin, Finnish President Alexander Stubb said at a news conference Wednesday in Helsinki.
“We need to coordinate, we need to have a common agenda,” Stubb said. “I think it’s important that we have the big players up in the front, France, Germany, and the UK.”